Autodesk® Inventor CAM™ 2020.3 Update

Release Notes

Build 7.3.0.20019 / 27 January 2020
Autodesk, Inc.

This document covers all three Inventor CAM products:

Inventor CAM Express
Inventor CAM Premium
Inventor CAM Ultimate

What’s New
System Requirements
Installation

WHAT’S NEW

The following changes have been made in the current update (2020.3):

Changes for Milling

Fixed an issue where in 2D contour with a circular input contour, the application sometimes failed to generate a toolpath due to linking constraints. (#17413)
Fix an issue in 3D Pocket that caused linking moves to gouge when linking between 2 pockets. (#16278)
Fixed an issue in 2D/3D pocket in which a warning 'Cannot plunge outside stock' could be displayed even if this action was not requested. (#16970)
Fixed an issue in which 'Lead to Center' was ignored during spring passes in Bore toolpaths. (#17569)

Changes for Drilling

Fixed an issue when using the 'Drill Tip Through Bottom' setting. Only the Bottom depth could be edited when it was set to 'Model Bottom'. (#13033)

Enhancements for Turning

Added the ability in turning profile roughing and finishing to set the front Z tool limit type for right facing inserts. (#17254)
Improved the workflow for profile roughing and profile finishing operations by automatically setting the default turning mode based on the type of turning tool selected. (#17715)
Added the ability to reduce the feed rate at a certain radius for the turning face operation. This is done so the tool can slow down as it approaches the 0 spindle surface speed point where the tool finishes the little nub at X = 0. (#16867)
Added the ability to use contact point Z and radial limits with a turn profile roughing canned cycle operation. (#17872)
Optimized the workflow for turning profile roughing operations with cycle set to vertical passes by setting the default direction to outside to inside when turning mode is set to outside and setting the direction to inside to outside when turning mode is set to inside. (#17463)
Added the ability in a turning profile roughing operation to choose whether to rapid directly to the next depth of cut or perform a dual move consisting of a rapid move to the previous depth of cut, then feed to the next depth of cut. (#17896)
Enabled the parameter 'Use Tailstock' for inside turn profile roughing. (#17387)

Fixes for Turn Profile Finishing

Fixed issues with certain profile finishing toolpaths where:
- the correct toolpath was not generated when the outer radius coincided with model outer radius. (#17158)
- the toolpath was not going deep enough if the inner radius coincided with the lowest model radius to be machined. (#17181)
- the back tangential extension was shorter than expected in some cases. (#16408)
- there was an extra point in the partline output when using the 'In Control' compensation type. (#17414)
- the tool was moving past the inner radius by twice the tool nose radius if the radial tool limit was set to the contact point for outside finishing. (#11747)
- toolpaths were entering radial grooves even though grooving was not enabled (also fixed for roughing). (#17837)
- no toolpath was produced in some cases. (#18188)

Fixes for Turn Profile Roughing

Fixed an issue with turn profile roughing so that the linking moves between two cutting depths are now a combination of rapid and cutting feed. (#17255)
Fixed issues with profile roughing toolpaths where:
- the tool was entering the material at an incorrect Z clearance when using a back to front direction in some cases. (#17253)
- the first cut was deeper than expected and there were no retract moves at the back stock surface when using a back tangential extension. (#17688)
- toolpaths with vertical passes on the face of the part were not being generated correctly. (#17139)
- the toolpath was incorrect if the outer radius of the operation coincided with the outer radius of the model being machined. (#16868)
- toolpaths were incorrect if grooving was set to 'Allow Radial Grooving'. (#18665)
- the toolpath was not removing material to the back Z limit (#17517) or as expected in some cases. (#17690)
- the toolpath was not leaving material when using vertical passes with X clearance. (#16748)
- a toolpath move was being assigned a feed rate not accessible through the user interface. (#17497)
- certain boring bars could not be used. (#17341)
- the toolpath was not respecting the grooving parameter when using vertical passes. (#16730)
- the toolpath was incorrect in some cases if using both vertical passes and tangential extensions. (#16657)
- the toolpath was incorrect in some cases when using vertical passes and direction set to both ways. (#16624)
- the tool did not clear the remaining stock material by a distance equal to Z clearance in some cases with horizontal passes. (#16456)
- the first cut was too deep if the back Z limit of the operation was set to a contact point tool limit type. (#16569, #16829)
- the retract move was gouging into the wall in some cases when using vertical passes. (#16542)
- the toolpath was incorrect for certain combinations of turning mode and direction. (#16749)
- the toolpath was not being generated in some cases when using a horizontal neutral turning tool. (#17578)

Changes for Turning Canned Cycles

Fixed issues with profile roughing when using canned cycles where:
- the canned cycle profile was not extending up to the correct limit with tool limits set to the contact point. (#16571)
- the first move in the canned cycle profile was not a rapid move. (#18065)
- the first move in the canned cycle profile was inside the stock. (#17991)
- an additional point was added to the end of the canned cycle profile if the section was vertical and coincided with the front Z limit. (#16387)
- the toolpath failed to generate in some cases on the front of the part. (#17386)
- post-processing failed for certain setups containing turning canned cycle operations. (#17470)

Other Fixes for Turning

Fixed an issue where adaptive turning could fail when rest machining from a previous operation. (#16960)
Fixed an issue where certain grooving tools with round shanks were not correctly rendered for toolpath verification and simulation. (#17430)
Fixed an issue for turning chamfer operations where boring bars were not supported for either outside and inside chamfers. (#13005)

Changes for Simulation

Fixed a crash that could occur when starting and stopping simulation multiple times. (#18611)
In stock simulation for a threading operation, the distance between threads will now match the thread pitch from the operation rather than from the tool. (#17088)

Changes for User Interface

Improved the performance of gathering post information when opening the Post Process dialog. (#16883)
Fixed an issue in which an error about a missing file could be generated when using rest machining in specific cases. (#18280)
Corrected the icon which was displayed for turn profile roughing. (#17647)
Fixed an issue in which the Spanish help page was not found. (#16880)

Uninstall

In some circumstances, an incorrect update version appears on the Windows "Installed Updates" page and this update cannot be uninstalled there. When this is the case, this update can be uninstalled using one of the following commands in the Windows Command Prompt. Choose the command corresponding to your HSM product:

Inventor CAM Premium/Ultimate: msiexec.exe /promptrestart /qb /uninstall {D7C66041-8446-4AE0-9883-B05BBF15F27C} /package {08246110-8B45-41B8-BE4C-1091C19900C0} SETUP=1
Inventor CAM Express: msiexec.exe /promptrestart /qb /uninstall {6EE2ACBF-42E3-4914-9AB2-F3055EAC69BD} /package {90A7FECD-439D-410F-95DE-4554392F7021} SETUP=1

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2020.2):

New Turning Strategies

A significant set of recent Fusion 360 turning improvements have been carried over to Inventor CAM in this update. Two new strategies for profile roughing and finishing have been introduced. Previously, both profile roughing and finishing were bundled in the same “Turning Profile” strategy but now they have been split into two separate strategies. The reasons for doing this were to:
- Simplify the workflow by reducing complexity.
- Simplify the interface and reduce clutter by removing parameters from roughing that did not apply to finishing and vice versa.
- Allow roughing and finishing operations to use a separate tool, separate feeds and speeds and separate machining limits.

New functionality within the new turning strategies includes Tangential Extensions, Back Z Tool Limits, Radial Tool Limits, Canned Cycles for roughing, and more. You can read a detailed description on the Fusion 360 blog.

Turning Toolpaths

Added the ability to select a face grooving tool or a Z oriented external grooving tool in a single groove operation for machining grooving features on the face of the part (#11470)

Milling Toolpaths

Engrave toolpaths can now be generated over multiple levels in cases where, due to tool geometry, the initial engrave toolpath had to be offset (#15424)
Fixed an issue in which Order Optimization was not working in 2D Pocket strategies. (#1579)
Fixed an Internal CAM Kernel error that the 3D Horizontal strategy was returning when predrill points were selected. (#16382, #16256)
Fixed a crash that could occur in a Parallel operation if a rest tool generated no machining boundary. (#16107)
Fixed an issue in which a linking move between Contour toolpath cutting moves could gouge through the model. (#15799)
Fixed an issue in which a Circular toolpath would not include circular walls with through holes. (#16599)

Drilling

The "Probe" drilling cycle has been renamed to "Custom" to better reflect that this is a mechanism that can be used in conjunction with a post-processor that has custom logic for handling a non-standard cycle.(#16322)
Fixed an issue in drilling in which only the bottom depth could be edited when set to Model Bottom and Drill Tip Through Bottom was enabled. (#13033)

Post Process

The library of installed posts has been updated with the latest changes, bringing them in line with the online library available at https://cam.autodesk.com/posts. (#17148)
Added support in the Post Processor kernel for head configurations and offset table configurations when TCP is not supported. (#11286)

Simulation

Inventor should now avoid some crashes in manufacturing simulation that used to happen when the user restarts the simulation before the previous background clash detection has finished. (#14714)
Fixed an unexpected program close when selecting a turning toolpath. (#15611)
Prevent crashes in simulation that are due to multithreading issues in third-party software. (#13732)

User Interface

Fixed some issues with Preserve Order for the Pocket strategy. (#14967)
Fixed several instances where text in the user interface was not being localized. (#13581, #13582)
Fixed an issue in which Set Default Folder did not always work from the popup menu in parts with multiple setups. (#15779)
Fixed an issue in which the application sometimes crashed while displaying graphics associated with selected operations. (#17138)

Uninstall

Inventor CAM Premium/Ultimate: msiexec.exe /promptrestart /qb /uninstall {917ce4f7-329f-4eb1-bae4-30290b8723ca} /package {08246110-8B45-41B8-BE4C-1091C19900C0} SETUP=1
Inventor CAM Express: msiexec.exe /promptrestart /qb /uninstall {6e401531-42dd-46e6-ade3-d8bd3eb82dd2} /package {90A7FECD-439D-410F-95DE-4554392F7021} SETUP=1

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2020.1):

Patch Updates

This is the first update which is being delivered as a patch rather than a full installer, which will minimize download and install time. The same patch can be applied for both Premium and Ultimate installations.

Milling Toolpaths

Fixed an issue where 3D Adaptive Clearing with rest machining can fail with complex remaining stock. (#13622)
Fixed several issues in which the toolpath computations for Adaptive Clearing could fail on Mac. (#12188)
Improved Adaptive for tighter model contours; it now finds a starting point on the stock boundary. (#12095)
Improved start entries for Adaptive Clearing toolpaths so that the toolpath starts in corners/endpoints rather than in the middle of a stock line. (#12238)
Fixed an issue where calculating a 2D Adaptive toolpath with rest machining from a face selection could result in a large area being machined. (#13030)
Fixed an issue in Adaptive where using a ballnose cutter as a reference tool was giving the wrong toolpath. (#14000)
Removed machine orientation information from the Adaptive toolpath geometry tab. (#14294)
Fixed a crash that could occur in some cases after deleting the contour selection associated with a flat pattern. (#11055)
Fixed an issue where preserve order was not respected in 2D Profile toolpaths. (#12127)
Fixed an issue that could occur when creating bore, circular and threading toolpaths around cylindrical bosses. (#14593)
Fixed a problem in Contour toolpaths where ramps might not be connected to their cutting moves, resulting in an unexpected lift and plunge to cover the gap. (#13822)
Fixed an issue that introduced unnecessary retracts in Ramp operations. (#13747)
Fixed an issue which caused irregular cutting passes for Scallop toolpaths. (#13757)
Fixed an issue where a Constant Scallop toolpath might not calculate when up/down milling and 'other-way' linking was enabled. (#13172)

Turning Toolpaths

Fixed an issue where an angled turning tool was incorrectly previewed in the tool library. (#13725)
Fixed a problem in turning profile roughing operations with turning mode set to face profiling where the toolpath was not regenerated after the direction parameter in the operation was changed. (#14313)
Added an option for a turn parting operation to keep the parting tool down at the final toolpath point X coordinate or retract it to the clearance X coordinate. (#12779)
Fixed an issue for turning face and chamfer operations with a turning or grooving tool. For certain combinations of the spindle direction and handedness of the holder, the Safe Z coordinate was based upon the wrong side of the insert. (#12454)
Fixed an issue where a grooving operation could fail if the back and front Z limits coincided with the extents of the groove geometry. (#10978)
Fixed a memory leak for some turning grooving jobs. (#13390)

Tool Library

Fixed turning tool preview in the tool library when the spindle rotation was changed. (#13998)
Fixed a problem with the visualization of a round shank external grooving tool in simulation. (#13797)

User Interface

Fixed a problem in which an error message about "invalid machine configuration" was incorrectly displayed. (#14475)
Fixed a problem where retracting z levels were machine areas that had already been cleared in lower levels. (#14035)
Fixed a problem in which stock properties defaulted to selection of faces, and required selecting some face and clearing it before you could select the actual stock. (#13966)
Fixed a crash that could occur when using drag-and-drop to import a tool library from Windows Explorer into the tool library window. (#14382)
Fixed a crash that could occur during simulation if a toolpath removed nearly all of the stock. (#11142)
Fixed a problem in certain operation dialogs that caused incorrect display of group parameters if the group was re-displayed due to a change to another parameter. (#14155)
Fixed a problem that occurred when creating operations from a template containing a Manual NC operation. No tool will be assigned to the Manual NC. (#12703)

Post Processor

Fixed an issue in which NC code was not correctly saved to the specified output file. (#15704)
Fixed an issue in which the output directory could not be renamed or deleted after posting. (#13935)
Functionality has been restored to the alert, promptKey, and promptKey2 API calls. These now work as before, but are supported only on Windows. (#14452)
Fixed a regression where tool.getExtent() could return an empty bounding box, causing the setup sheet to incorrectly scale the tool image. (#13848)
Added a mechanism to define which rotary axes support TCP in the post processor. This simplifies the code needed to disable TCP for a single axis. (#13282)
Added new global function 'isNewWorkPlane(section)' which returns true if the passed section requires new workplane calls. This simplifies the 'newWorkPlane' checks that are typically done inside of post processors (#13278)
Added global variables 'minimumProgramNumber' and 'maximumProgramNumber' to post processor. (#13276)
Post properties that you set when using a post processor are now saved to a file. This allows using the post processor on other computers with confidence that the previously used properties will continue to be applied. (#13233)
Added the onManualNC function that will handle all Manual NC commands, and the expandManualNC function that handles all Manual NC commands using the historical method. (#12839)
Fixed the behavior of mapToWCS, so that it can be changed multiple times in the post. (#12733)
Added cancelRotation and cancelTranslation methods. (#8965)

NC Editor

Updated HSMEdit to fix an issue in which the display of text was corrupted. (#14524)
Updated HSMEdit to correct a problem with the backplotting function. (#14428)

Licensing

Fixed a problem that could occur when activating Inventor CAM with an HSM Ultimate network license. (#15164)
Fixed an issue in which administrator privileges were required when activating a license. (#14902)

The following changes were made in an earlier update (2020.0):

General Improvements

The HSMEditor has been updated to the latest version for the 2020 release. (CAM-12417)
Many icons in the user interface have been refreshed to improve constistency with Inventor. (CAM-11316)
CAM functions for 2D Profile are now enabled when the Flat Pattern environment is active in Inventor. (CAM-10631)
A warning is now issued if you edit a machine configuration that is being used in multiple setups, since the changes you make will affect all setups that reference the machine. (CAM-10281)

Post Processor Improvements

New functions 'section.getModelOrigin' and 'section.getModelPlane' were added to provide access to the work coordinate system of the CAD model. (CAM-12614)
A 'reset' parameter has been added to the createAxis function, which can reset the current rotary axis position to zero prior to scanning the section for the optimal rotary starting position. There are also corresponding 'axis.getReset' and 'axis.setReset' functions. (CAM-12300)
Post Processor: A new variable 'machineParameter.spindleSpeedDwell' has been added which specifies a dwell time in seconds when the spindle speed changes during a drilling cycle. This can be used to correct expanded gun-drilling cycles. (CAM-9495)

General Fixes

Fixed an issue in which the stock contours preview was incorrect when another tool orientation was selected in the operation. (CAM-12649)
Fixed several issues in which toolpaths were not being invalidated when specific parameters were changed: Safe Z, Origin or Chuck Front in a turning setup, Entry and Pre-drill positions, Bottom Height 'from selected point'. (CAM-13938, CAM-13360, CAM-12632, CAM-13218, CAM-12991)
Avoid incorrect parenting of the Machine Select dialog, which could lead to a crash. (CAM-13443)

Toolpath Fixes

When using a cutter with a corner radius in 2D Adaptive, the upper edge of a pocket could be gouged in some circumstances; this is corrected. (CAM-11596)
Allow machining two open bores within the same operation. (CAM-11647)
Fixed an issue where the software could hang when calculating helical ramps on a contour pass. (CAM-12129)
Fixed an issue in which toolpaths might not get created when using the "Fillet" option (Mac only). (CAM-12279)
Fixed an issue where faceting could occur in Scallop operations. (CAM-12326)
Fixed an issue in which helical links were detached from their cutting segment and a further lift and plunge was inserted in between to join them. (CAM-12364)
Jet will now provide the user with a better warning when no path can be computed. (CAM-12953)
Contour with Both Way and Roughing Passes used to produce partial toolpaths. This has now been fixed. (CAM-13309)
Fixed an issue in which entry positions were inadvertently removed from 2D Chamfer operations. (CAM-13676)
Fixed an issue which caused irregular cutting passes for the scallop strategy. (CAM-13757)
Fixed an issue where some arcs were misformed when offset. (CAM-13135)
Fixed an issue which could have caused gouges when smoothing for sampling strategies is enabled. (CAM-13266)
Fixed an issue in which a toolpath would not regenerated after smoothing was turned on or off. (CAM-12599)
Fixed an issue in which rapid retracts of undercutting tools could fail to report some collisions. (CAM-11401)

Turning Fixes

Fixed leads when "Use fixed lead direction" was turned off for certain inside and face grooving operations. (CAM-10679)
Use more accurate round shank holders (instead of square) for visualization and simulation of some turning tools. (CAM-11423)
Fixed issues with toolpath verification, simulation and NC code when an angled turning tool with compensation set to tip tangent was used for profiling, facing or chamfering. (CAM-11617)
Fixed an issue where the compensation point for a boring tool was incorrectly previewed in the tool library. (CAM-12236)
The non-functional 'Radial dimension mode' dropdown was removed from the turning / turn-mill setup dialog. (CAM-12448)
Fixed an issue in which the tangent compensation point for a turning tool was incorrect when changing the tool direction. (CAM-12856)

Post Processor Fixes

Fixed an issue in which "getOptimizedTCPMode" was returning an incorrect value. (CAM-11367)
A post processor error is no longer generated when a multi-axis operation has a constant tool axis of 0,0,1. (CAM-11794)
The post processor now considers a drilling operation to be an axial center drilling operation instead of a milling operation when it is within a tolerance of X=0, Y=0. (CAM-8185)
Fixed a problem in which linear values from the machine configuration dialog were not recalculated according to the output units. (CAM-11877)

Return to Top

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

Autodesk Inventor CAM 2020 supports Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit and Windows 10 64-bit.
Inventor CAM 2020 is compatible with the 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 versions of Inventor, Inventor Professional, and Inventor LT.

Return to Top

INSTALLATION

New installation

Inventor must be installed prior to installing Inventor CAM
If you need to install Inventor, it should be available to you in the Autodesk Account Portal
Before you install Inventor CAM 2020, please make sure to run Windows Update, install all Windows Updates that are pending on your machine, and reboot:
- For Windows 10: Windows Update is available in the Update and Security section of Windows Settings, which is available from the Windows menu.
- Windows 7: Windows Update is located in the Control Panel, which is accessible from the Start menu.
It is sometimes necessary to perform a Windows Update multiple times to completely update your operating system.
Verify that enough disk space is available on your machine to install Inventor CAM 2020.
Before installing Inventor CAM 2020, please uninstall all prior Autodesk beta products.
Download Inventor CAM 2020 from the Autodesk Account Portal (preferred) or cam.autodesk.com.
Follow the instructions to download and launch the installer. Temporary extraction is to your temp folder. Operating system errors regarding very long path names can occur if the temporary location is nested too many levels deep.
If the installer does not launch, browse to the folder where the files were extracted, and double-click setup.exe.

Updating an existing installation

When a new update is available, an update notification will appear in the Autodesk Desktop App.
Please download and install the update package.

Before installing an update there is no need to uninstall a previous Inventor CAM release; but if you prefer to do so, you can uninstall the relevant release in Programs and Features in Windows Control Panel by accessing “View installed updates”.

Return to Top

FEEDBACK

We encourage you to provide your feedback to us and help make Inventor CAM even better. If you encounter issues not covered in this document, please report them to Autodesk through your reseller, on the CAM discussion forum, or to the Inventor CAM team using 'Send Feedback' on the 'Help' menu.

The Autodesk CAM Team
For more information visit us at: http://cam.autodesk.com